Tag Archives: poetry residential in Cornwall

I’m really excited to announce that I’ll be running my annual Residential Poetry Course down in St Ives in 2018 with the fabulous Helen Mort as my co-tutor. The course will be running from 9th-14th April 2018, and I’ll be posting up details of the theme that we’ll be exploring during the week very soon, along with details of our guest poet, so watch this space. I’ve also just spoken to the hotel and they’ve already sold a quarter of the places, so if you would like to come, please contact the hotel (details below). If you’d like more details about the week, just get in touch.

What can poems say indirectly? What does the writer choose to leave out and why? Can silence be loud? How do successful poems use blank space? How do poets use repetition, interruption or distraction ? On this course, we’ll look at (and challenge) the power of ‘the unsaid’ in writing. There will be plenty of workshops and time to write your own poems, as well as opportunities for feedback on your work from the group, and a one-to-one tutorial with one of the tutors. There will also be readings from the tutors and a guest poet will perform mid-week. The course fee includes workshops, accommodation, breakfast, three course evening meals and a cream tea each day.

HelenMort has published two collections with Chatto & Windus, Division Street (2013) and No Map Could Show Them (2016). She is a Lecturer in Creative Writing at the Manchester Writing School (MMU) and a former Poet in Residence at the Wordsworth Trust. She also writes short stories, drama and fiction. In 2014, she won the Fenton Aldeburgh Prize for best first collection.

Kim Moore’s first collection The Art of Falling was published by Seren in 2015. A poem from this collection was shortlisted for the Forward Prize. Her first pamphlet If We Could Speak Like Wolves was a winner in the 2012 Poetry Business Pamphlet Competition and went on to be shortlisted for the Michael Marks Award and named in The Independent as a Book of the Year. She is one of five UK poets chosen to take part in Versopolis, a European funded project to bring the work of UK poets to an international audience. She is currently a PhD student at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Evening all! Today I suddenly remembered it is already June and I need to crack on with advertising the next Residential Poetry Course that I’m running with the wonderful Clare Shaw as co-tutor this October. I can’t believe how quickly this has come round. Apparently about a third of the places have gone already and I am expecting the places to go quite quickly so if you are thinking of coming, get in touch with the hotel and book a place – contact details below.

‘The Call of the Tide’ Residential Poetry Course,
Treloyhan Manor Hotel, St Ives, Cornwall,
27th- 30th October 2014Course Leaders: Kim Moore and Clare Shaw
Come and join us for a week of workshops, discussions and readings. The theme of the week will be ‘The Call of the Tide’. In the beautiful setting of St Ives and surrounded on three sides by the sea, we will explore how encounters with the tide, the coast and the forces of nature can inspire and inform our writing. There will be two mystery guest poets who join us mid week and time for one-to-one tutorials.

There are limited numbers and we are expecting the course to be full, so please book your place early to avoid disappointment

Draft Timetable

Monday 27th October2.30pm-5pm –Workshop with Clare Shaw and Kim Moore
“What the Tide Brings In” –As we set sail on five days of creative discovery and development, we’ll meet and greet our fellows travellers in this introductory session. We’ll also start to explore the forces that flow through poetry; and to establish how we’ll discover and develop those throughout the week.

8pm – Evening Reading in the loungeBring a favourite poem to share with the group, written by somebody else.

Tuesday 28th October

10am-1pm – Morning Workshop with Clare Shaw“What the Water Gave Me”
Inspired by the ocean and what it offers, we’ll examine the principles of powerful language at work in contemporary poetry, and at how we can put them into practice in our writing.

3pm-5pm – Afternoon Workshop with Kim Moore‘I need the sea because it teaches me’ – Pablo Neruda – Tuesday afternoon workshop with KimWhat has the sea taught us, and what is there left still to learn? What can we learn from the people/fish/birds/animals/lighthouses/rocks/the moon/the stars/inanimate objects that make their home in or near the sea? We will attempt to answer these questions with poems, which will hopefully leave us with more questions than we started with…

8pm – Poetry Reading in the Lounge with Kim Moore and Clare ShawWednesday 29th October10am-1pm Morning Workshop with Clare Shaw and Kim Moore –“The Edges of the Tide” –
From Arnold via Larkin to Oswald and beyond, poetry is created where ocean meets land. Following in their footsteps (weather allowing), we’ll take our inspiration from the extraordinary human and physical landscapes of the coast, and create some poetry of our own.

Free Afternoon – Tutorials available – participants to sign up at the beginning of the week

8pm – Poetry Reading in the lounge with two Mystery Guests

Thursday 30th October10am-1pm – Morning Workshop with Kim MooreStories of the Tide – Thursday morning workshop with KimThe ocean plays a central role in the stories and myths that we tell ourselves. The sea is a part of many idioms and phrases in language. How can we use these myths, stories and phrases to enrich our own poetry?

3-5pm – Afternoon Workshop with Clare Shaw
“its always our self we find in the sea”: …. the ocean, the voyage and and lifewriting.Ocean is one of the richest sources of metaphor. Whether literally or metaphorically, we’ll go beachcombing and find some version of ourselves to write about.

8pm – Poetry Reading in the lounge by Course Participants –A chance for participants to read poems written on the course, or work they have brought along with them.
31st October
10am-1pm – Morning Workshop- with Clare Shaw/Kim MooreA chance to bring a poem for feedback from the group and the tutors. This can be a poem you have written on the course or one you have brought from home.